Klook, a travel booking website, has refunded the full fare of rides arranged via illegal ‘white taxis,’ as reported by this magazine.
‘White taxis’ refer to illegal taxi services operated with personal vehicles bearing white license plates, rather than the green license plates of licensed commercial vehicles. Operating such a service is a violation of the Road Transport Act and can result in imprisonment of up to three years or a fine of up to 3 million yen. Furthermore, passengers might not be covered by insurance in case of accidents.
This magazine published a report on December 13th, indicating that a vehicle booked through Klook was a ‘white taxi.’ The report detailed the incident. Prior to the article’s publication, a spokesperson for the company denied arranging ‘white taxis,’ stating, ‘We do not deal with partners who cannot prove sufficient licensing documentation and compliance with laws and regulations.’ They emphasized Klook’s clean record.
A customer service representative from Klook responded via email, ‘We request all our suppliers to hold the necessary licenses to provide their services. This also applies to our domestic transportation services where we confirm whether they are licensed operators at the time of contract and continuously enforce strict adherence to the law. (…) Following the verification of the facts, a supplier was found to be in violation; therefore, we are proceeding with the refund for the product. The supplier’s listings have already been delisted.’
Klook Travel Technology, which operates Klook, is based in Hong Kong and offers reservation services for travel activities and local tours. The company has received investment from the SoftBank Vision Fund. Its Japanese subsidiary was established in 2017 and has a track record of joint promotions with the Japan National Tourism Organization.
Booking.com and Agoda have previously processed full fare refunds as well.
Notice
This article was generated using automatic translation by GPT-4 API. The translation may not be accurate.
